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Rose Glass (Britain, 1990), who graduated from the National Film and Television School in 2014, debuted with the psychological thriller Saint Maud (2019), a competent but not particularly original film in that much abused genre.
The first scene (before the titles) briefly shows a dead man and a young nurse in a hospital.
We then see nurse Maud walk into the mansion of a sick rich woman, Amanda,
a former dancer. Maud has been hired to be her nurse, cook, maid, etc.
Maud is very religious. On the other hand, Amanda is paralyzed but lives a
decadent life. She even pays a young woman, Carol, for sex.
We see that Maud inflicts pain on herself and falls victim to epileptic crises
and hallucinations. Amanda, who knows to be dying, is an atheist: Maud convinces her to pray with her. Amanda gives her a gift: an illustrated book of William Blake's poems. Maud thinks that she's making progress in converting Amanda to believe in God, and tells Carol to stop visiting. Maud believes she's on a divine mission. One night, walking at the seaside amusement park, she runs into an old friend, Joy, who calls her "Katie". Joy tries to strike a conversation but Maud/Katie is hostile. They used to work together at the same hospital and Joy feels bad for what happened to Katie (presumably the incident of the first scene).
Amanda gathers friends to celebrate her birthday. Carol too is invited.
During the party, Amanda insults and mocks Maud's divine mission until Maud snaps and slaps her.
Amanda fires her and Maud returns to her simple room, unemployed and lonely.
One night Maud hangs out in a bar, masturbates a random patron, gets drunk and sleeps with another one, who remembers her from the time when she was somebody's
girlfriend, but she has a vision of her patient dying on her.
Then at home she punishes herself in cruel manners.
We see her levitating in her room.
She is descending into madness. She keeps thinking of Amanda's soul.
One day she approaches the new nurse that replaced her. Initially, Maud is friendly but then she rudely leave, jealous that the new nurse has replaced her
and upset that the new nurse is so indifferent to Amanda's terminal illness.
At home, Maud can hear God's voice.
Joy comes to visit her, trying to be a good friend, and Maud thanks her.
Maud kisses her on the cheek but then shows her the door.
Nighttime, Maud enters Amanda's mansion and talks to Amanda. Amanda, however,
mocks her religious feelings. Maud sees her as the devil and stabs her
repeatedly to death.
The following morning Maud wears a simple white tunic, walks to the beach,
douses herself with gasoline and sets herself on fire.
The horrified witnesses kneel as they see angel wings appear on her, but it's probably only in Maud's imagination: in reality she is screaming out of her head.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024), co-written with Weronika Tofilska, is a more
conventional lesbian thriller.
(Copyright © 2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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